EC teams to track black money use in 3 city polls

Mohammad Zakaria
The Election Commission has decided to form three separate teams to keep an eye on the use of black money by mayor and councillor hopefuls in the upcoming Rajshahi, Barishal and Sylhet city corporation polls.
Three city corporations vote on July 30. The commission issued a letter signed by the deputy secretary to the EC, Farhad Hossain, and sent to the returning officers of the city corporations, Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Cabinet Division, Public Administration Division and other authorities concerned.
The candidates spending over election expenditure mentioned in the nomination papers, will come under commission action, as per the electoral laws, Farhad Hossain told Bangladesh Post on Thursday.
The EC has the authority to cancel candidatures for violations of electoral rules, he also said.
To check influence of black money in the city corporation polls, the commission has decided to form three separate teams to keep track of election expenditures of mayor and councillor candidates, he added.
The senior official said, the commission had formed election expenditure monitoring teams in the last two city corporation—Khulna and Gazipur polls too, which was very much effective.
Each team consists six members including returning officer, assistant returning officer, representatives of Deputy Commissioner, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Divisional Audit Comptroller and Upazila Election Officer.
The team observes whether candidates spend money as stipulated in the nomination paper, he said.
Twelve mayor candidates from the ruling Awami League and the BNP have collected nomination papers for the three city corporations.
According to the poll schedule, the withdrawal of nominations is July 9, and election symbol distribution, July 10. The mayor and councillor candidates will start their election campaigning on getting their election symbols.
Meanwhile, the just-held Khulna and Gazipur City Corporation elections were free, fair and peaceful, without any kind of violence incidents.